Marketing Strategy - 5 Great Apps to use in Your Business

There can be a tendency for lawyers and firms to think narrowly about the apps and platforms they use internally. Many focus on apps and software that has been designed for legal and that’s fine but in our experience the most innovative and forward thinking firms are bring in outside technology to use across a number of core business area. We have ourselves had extensive experience using various CRMs, project management, communication, cloud, scheduling and on-boarding apps and finding the right tools can make all the difference. This process will require trial and error and of course lots of testing which is why so many firms shy away from changing the outdated tool they use now. Here is a list of the most killer apps to bring into your business:

Trello

The first app we swear by is Trello. It took us a push to really get into using Trello, but it has proved it’s worth 1000 times over. Trello is a project management tool that makes collaboration easy to manage and stay organised. It’s interface shows visual tools being board, cards and lists of cards that can be organised along any line the suits your process and is 100% customisable. It’s super engaging and even kind of fun to use.

It allows all manner of file and copy sharing as well as communication and integrations with all major cloud based apps like Google and Office 365 etc. The Trello Cards are like digital sticky notes that can fit all the information and files you need for each step of your process or project. All the content is sharable, searchable and come with reminders.

We use Trello for project management around audio and podcast production, client content marketing creation, tracking business development and marketing efforts, organising and planning events just to name a few.

Slack

Slack is essentially a really well organised chat room for your entire organisation with channels set up according to whatever category, project or matter you need. Channels can be curated to selected members or open to everyone. Essentially Slack does a great job of removing the need for email for the purposes of internal communication, file sharing and collaboration.

Its workspaces allow you to organise communications by channels for group discussions and it also allows for private messaging and file sharing of all formats from text, to audio to image to video and PDF. You name it.

The other great thing about Slack are the integrations with other apps like Trello, so you can manage entire workflow and receive notifications through the one platform.

Slack also has Slackbot. You and your teammates can teach Slackbot a variety custom responses to use in channels ie remembering the wifi password. You can also get deadlines and reminders and Slackbot will make sure to alert you.

Buffer

The Buffer app is a social media management platform. Buffer makes it easy for businesses and marketing teams to schedule social media posts, analyse performance, and manage all their accounts in one place.

For example, Buffer allows you to easily bookmark and schedule Tweets or Facebook updates from any browser or mobile device. This way you can effectively spread your Tweets out over the course of a day. It makes for an amazing tool to manage and schedule all your social media content and posting.

Buffer also produces statistics so you can see how many people clicked on links you shared, the estimated reach and the number of Retweets. If you can't measure it you can't manage it. For us and our clients this is essential. You can use the analytics to see your social media performance, understand how to improve your results, and create reports for your manager or clients.

Hemingway

There are few businesses that do content marketing that don’t spend a lot of time writing. One of the most effective tools we have come across to actively help you improve your writing and style is Hemingway.

If you are a blogger, Hemingway is the tool you didn't know you needed! Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear, and highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors. For example, red sentences are considered very hard to read and yellow sentences are hard to read. This indicates that you should shorten or split the sentence. You can utilise a shorter word in place of a purple one. Adverbs and weakening phrases are helpfully shown in blue.

It allows you to learn and develop your writing skills as you go in real time by hi-lighting the problem words and sentences which allows you to then go back and make adjustments.

Also, it's free!!

Active Campaign

Active Campaign is marketing automation on steroids. The email marketing automation and CRM platform will revolutionise how you use your email list and turn leads into customers. Active Campaign includes a powerful visual automation editor that allows you to build some amazing email workflows. By segmenting emails, you can send highly targeted emails which are far more engaging.

If you are still manually sending cold emails, you need to look into Active Campaign. According to HubSpot, marketers who implement marketing automation increase their sales by an average of 10%. Imagine increasing your client based work by 10%?

For something that is some easy to implement and manage Active Campaign is a no brainer for increased sales.